I know it’s been a long wait for Renton to appear, but I’ll be honest – I don’t think anyone could have asked for a better introduction than that. The fact that it came as the cherry on top of an episode that was superb in every way, from script to animation to music to the performances of the cast, is just that much better. And maybe best of all, all the folks who’ve been complaining about the lack of Renton as if this show was supposed to be about him now have to wait until November to see the tail-end of this cliffhanger. It almost – not quite – makes the fact that the rest of us have to wait too worthwhile.

There was so much about this ep that was right on the money that it’s an embarrassment of riches to choose from. One thing that really jumps out, though, is just how great it was to see Ao and Naru together again. Even I was a little skeptical that would be the case after all this time and the changes we’ve seen in her character, and even I’m willing to admit that keeping the pair of them separated for so long was probably a mistake. Why? Because their chemistry was just as winning as it was in the first few episodes. I thought the entire awkward sequence with the two of them at the breakfast table was spot-on, right down to the Iwato locals eavesdropping. Ao proves himself utterly clueless about girls, of course, and asks the worst possible question – “Is that what Truth’s into?” But Naru’s surprise is genuine – it simply never occurs to her that Ao could doubt her loyalty to him.

So much has happened since that it’s easy to forget that the Ao-Naru bond was basically the heart and soul of the first arc of this series, but it all came rushing back seeing them together – and it really made me realize how much I missed that side of Astral Ocean. The mood of those first eps was recaptured in a way I didn’t think possible, especially when Naru casually ripped her ears (or wings, or whatever they were) off. Fact is, what Ao said was exactly what a lot of fans of the show who were ripping Naru said – that it seemed as if she’d chosen Truthie over Ao. But remember what Naru said to Ao way back in the epic episode 14 – “I wanted to fly with you, not just be embraced by you.” She just wants to fly with Ao, and grow old with him – and whatever makes that possible is worth pursuing. This all comes down to two things for me – first, Truth offered Naru “wings”, by helping her realize that her illness was actually a hidden power. And second, that Naru has always had an affinity for outcasts and outsiders – it’s evident in her devotion to Ao – and she was Truth not as evil, but as the ultimate outsider – someone who didn’t belong to the humans, or the scub, or the secrets. It doesn’t in any way justify what he’s done, but it does help explain why Naru sympathizes with him.

In a way, I think Truth as depicted in this episode is a sort of cancerous tumor – the body’s own cells (the white blood cell analogy I used back in episode 13 now formally canon) genetically altered and turned against it. The character has taken a lot of abuse from viewers – some of it justified, some not so much – but I think his context in the story is much clearer now. And the great Kazuhiko Inoue really brought his helpless rage to life in this episode (hard to believe this is Nyanko-sensei, but that’s how good Inoue-san is). Problem is, Truthie is also a mass murderer of incalculable scale, and has apparently decided that this world is so “afflicted” that only its destruction can be his goal. And he’s also generating so much trapar that the “coral carriers” afflicted with scub in their bodies will die if they come into close contact with him. So on that front, we’re left with a looming final battle with Truth – Team Harelquin having joined the cause (they were indeed playing at switching sides to allow Pied Piper to escape) and fighting alongside Pied Pier, with President Fleur “She’s not his girlfriend!” Blanc trading her power suit for a flight suit one more time. Despite being warned that he too might be vulnerable to trapar overload Ao joins the cause, with Naru flying with him at last – though the secrets say Nirvash can’t win because it doesn’t have a heart, and Naru says it’s because it doesn’t have an archetype.

What we’re also seeing is a looping in of the theme from E7, the tragedy of the scub coral. The Coralians seek coexistence with humanity, but that just never seems to end well. We see the growing movement around Naru, “carriers” who believe that the Coralians are a benevolent species and that communication and coexistence is the natural progression of humanity. But we also see infected humans dying (again). This cuts to the essence of Eureka’s existence, really – the bridge between species, the living embodiment of the idealistic hope that humans and Coralians can share the same universe and live peacefully together. And of course, through her union with Renton, Ao is the continuation of that hope – the true hybrid of human and Coralian.

On cue, jump forward a bit – to 12021 AD, in fact – and the long-awaited appearance of Renton Thurston. The calendar tells us that Renton is now 31 years old, and it appears as if his world – presumably the one from the original series – is basically dead, with the humans having been unable to stave off infection by Coralians. Renton has two-tone hair, shades, and the voice of Fujiwara Keiji. I loved Renton’s grand entrance – badass, dark, and best of all, totally on-point with AO’s plot. However, I’m not quite sure how I feel about him having the same seiyuu as Holland. I don’t know if BONES is trying to make a larger point here but it seems an odd choice to me – but be that as it may, Renton is part of the story now and in a big way, too. When an occurrence of the Seven Swell Effect takes place, he and “his” Nirvash head off to “Put an end to everything….get Eureka back… from that sky.”

And so, now, we wait – because in case you missed the news, it was announced this week that the final two eps of AO will be airing in November. I don’t necessarily consider that good news or bad – it sucks to wait, but the alternative could have been worse than a 4-6 week delay. And it certainly appears as if BONES is going to go for the epic in the conclusion – a conclusion which I still expect to come down to Ao’s decision about which world he chooses, or whether he chooses a third way. You may have also heard about a choice I made, to move to Japan – something I’ll be doing in October, so it’ll be from Tokyo that I blog the last two episodes of Astral Ocean. It’s going to be a crazy time in my life, but I’ll be here blogging Little Busters in the Fall, and gearing up for Taichi Tuesdays in January. And of course, cursing cliffhangers and counting the minutes until we finally see the conclusion of AO…

I dont think that was the overpowered One-Eyed-Nirvash that can shoot WTFBBQ laser beams on its finger and can talk.

Eureka left the first Nirvash on Ao’s timeline during her first visit and it is currently being ridden by Naru. Then there’s the second Nirvash, currently ridden by Ao. It’s probably a new Nirvash probably the third one.

If there is anything I don’t want, it’s the movie to be tied into this. References are fine, but that movie was as enjoyable as an abortion. It was as if they took all the main characters and locations from the series and played madlibs with them.

Pimpstaff Nirvash is fine. Just leave the movie off in it’s own little world.

“Naru’s surprise is genuine – it simply never occurs to her that Ao could doubt her loyalty to him.”

Really? cause staring at your so-called ‘significant other’ blankly at every encounter dropping cryptic phrases (a threat of bodily harm at times too) for nearly the WHOLE series leaves little to be desired, plus allying with your love interest’s sworn enemy without an explanation isn’t gonna help either

What I actually find hilarious is that Naru now find it suitable NOW to show emotion and be actually angry and offended at Ao’s remark of banishing her to the dreaded friend zone but just not just ANY friend zone but the your like a relative to me zone!

Fleur’s “She’s not his girlfriend!” response was immediate and decisive and if she is not too tied up in her new role as president and can probably get promoted to the title if “girlfriend” too!

Let’s see if good ol dad Renton can give some love advice to his son… wait, what would that advice be about?? please don’t tell me he’s gonna give his son magazines?!

I think thats just an upgrade version of spec3 …and has nothing to do with the movie version
also probably what happen with ao timeline will effect renton’s timeline which is why the ‘dying planet’ thing

haha I think fujiwara keiji was perfect for renton’s voice. If you think about it, Renton always wanted to be like Holland when he grew up, so in the end he actually IS. But also, who is the one other person Eureka ever trusted as much as renton, it was Holland, the one meant to be her original partner, so Eureka gets to have her cake and eat it too it seems…

Also so glad they didn’t just give renton a tache, I am completely fed up with the way anime keeps trying to imply age by giving characters loads of facial hair.

I’ve finally realized what bothers me so much about AO. Who is the enemy?

Call me simple, but in Eureka Seven, it was pretty clear who the enemy was at any given point in time. First it was the generic state military, an ambiguous thing that Renton didn’t understand but that was fine because we as the viewers didn’t have the whole picture. Then, as time when along, we were introduced to sympathetic people in the State Military, Dominic, Charles, Ray, ect. But we were also given someone even more evil, Dewey. By the end of things, we had a clear enemy and someone to fight and root for the heroes to defeat.

Who is the enemy in AO? First it was the Secrets, an ambiguous monster race that we didn’t understand. But then Truth was brought in, and he was shown to be this merciless entity intent on killing and bringing his plan to fruition. But what is his plan? Then Naru suddenly went bonkers, and we were supposed to think of her as an enemy. Only not because for some reason we weren’t allowed to by the plot, even though she allied with Truth. But then Truth allied with the secrets, but the the secrets allied with Japan, but then the US was the ally and Generation Blue was the enemy but then the US was the enemy and Generation Blue was okay again and then everyone was against Generation Blue and then even parts of Generation Blue were against Ao but then they weren’t but then Elena was but then she wasn’t but then the secrets were allies of Japan but then everyone allied against Truth but then…

You see the problem here? People switch allegiances more than Athrun from Gundam Seed. What the fuck is that thing Truth is stuck to? What the fuck is Truth’s goal now? Why does it feel like he is just flying around blowing shit up and not actually doing anything? What the hell do the secrets want? What the hell is the Scub Coral doing?

Why does none of this make any god damn sense? Why can’t we just have an enemy and root for the heroes to win against it?

I want desperately to have this show be fixed by the end, but with the clusterfuck of allegiances I can’t tell who I’m supposed to be rooting for anymore.

I’m not asking for the show to hold my hand, but is it so much to ask to at least know what the fuck is going on with two episodes left?

And Enzo? No offense, but I do not see how you can glorify this show as much as you do. There is so much wrong with it that I simply don’t understand how you can come in week after week and pretend like it’s the best anime of the season.

I don’t blame you for wanting to like it. I want to like it too. But I just can’t get around the glaring plot inconsistencies and mistakes that have been made. I hope you can understand where the naysayers are coming from.

“the Ao-Naru bond was basically the heart and soul of the first arc of this series”
It was? I though it was about blowing up Secrets. In fact a lot of AO is about blowing up stuff now that I think about it.

And I don’t see how folks can pour so much hate over E7 AO like they do.

Does it have flaws? Yes. But I liken Ao to the Dark Knight Rises. It doesn’t make the same waves that the Dark Knight did but it still gets a lot of things right. Ao like most of Nolan’s movies doesn’t worry a lot about getting every nitpicky detail right. Nolan’s movies still rock because he goes for the big picture but still holds shit together decently.

Yeah, it does give more ammo for the haters but the original E7 and E7:Ao has always been about the over arching theme of misunderstandings between cultures, how petty adults wage war and fuck up the world for the kids and how inevitably the kids pay the biggest price.

E7 Ao doesn’t have an extremely prominent main antagonist besides Truth. In fact the main antagonist has been really in flux since the beginning. BUT I like that. It reflects the tragedy of E7′s overall themes. You don’t have retarded black and white factions like Japan vs Britannia in Code Geass. Instead you have a lot of factions that mean well but still end up bringing about conflict because people remain unwilling to change their stance on things.

The problem is that the characters switch allegiances every episode. It’s like they are all in high school, which is clearly not supposed to be the case. The kids? Okay, I can understand wafting, but the adults? Entire countries? You don’t just throw away relations with nations at the drop of a hat. With nearly the ENTIRE WORLD going up against Generation Blue, you’d think Japan would wait a moment before going “You know, this guy who runs this organization people now consider to be terrorists wants us to ally with him but that seems really risky…” I mean I guess putting a young girl in charge of a company makes no less sense.

You know what I miss? Surfing robots. A young kid going on an adventure. A bright and colorful cast with almost all of their back stories fleshed out. Everything that was so great about Eureka Seven. I just feel like so much is lacking from AO.

The true nail in the coffin however is that if you took Eureka and Renton out of the series and made them different characters, this would be an alright stand along series. It’s nothing amazing, but it was at least be entertaining. Tacking on the Eureka Seven brand only serves to link it to a show far superior to it, which degrades both of them.

The Scub Coral is attempting to communicate with mankind because it is the only species on the planet that can match their level of intelligence, which is why some people who are near Scub Plants say “they can hear the voices of the Scubs”. Since this is implied to be the past, this might be what causes mankind to leave Earth, which will be overtaken by the Scubs. Mankind will return and a couple millennia later, E7 will start.

The Secrets are apparently the “white blood cells” of the planet, and joined up with the humans when they decided they wanted to get rid of the Scub Corals, who are from another world (as mentioned in Eureka Seven). So I’ll chalk that one up the original mythos just being way too hard to understand in the first place. Luckily the characters from the original were fun enough to make up for that. In this show, however…

The thing Truth is stuck to is the Kanon IFO-0, though the show’s website labels it as an LFO, and I think was stated to be the prototype for IFOs (don’t quote me on that). Apparently he latched onto it when Fleur’s dad blew him the fuck to hell, and is now going on a rampage because of…existential crisis and not knowing how to accept that he’s a Scub Coral and a Secret? Anyway, maybe once he’s taken down, we’ll understand what the hell Renton’s been talking about at the end of this ep.

And though it was barely mentioned, remember that Eureka and Renton are both trying to find out why the Scub Coral in their universe/time period/timeline/whatever is sending itself to the past…so hopefully that’s connected somehow.

I imagine that if this series were double the length and more of the plot points and allegiance changes were spaced waaaaay more, this would still be unbelievably convoluted…but at least it would be easier to swallow.

The reason mankind will leave in the first place will be because the Scub’s form of first communication is the infection we’re seeing with the “Coral Carriers”. I guess it’ll get to be too much for humans to live on, so that’s what’ll force em all out.

But hey, in the original, they said that if the Scub Corals ran out of things to ask mankind, the universe would end, so…yeah.

I just want to say that didn’t anyone of you people realized that Renton’s Nirvash is the one from the Eureka Seven: Pocket full of Rainbows? And pls go back to episode 21 watch it carefully and you will see theEND, the LFO of Anemone the rival of Eureka and Nirvash! The mystery is what are they doing there?

No, it isn’t. It’s already been established that Renton is building giant robots from scratch at this point. He built the one Ao is riding, so it’s no stretch to say he also built the one he is piloting. There is no indication that this Renton is from the movie.

As for The End being there, as another commenter on a different forum pointed out, it appears to only be there as something for Truth to blow up, which is pretty much most of the series.

Da5id, the problem with the Scub Coral theory you put up is that this is NOT how the Scub got to the Earth in the first series. It was a meteorite that hit a rocket and ended up in the ocean. It’s fine if somehow this Scub is somehow different, but it’s dumb for them to try to rewrite the mythos of a series that already finished for the sake of squeezing a poorly planned sequel out of it.

I actually laughed at Ananas reply… but he/she did get somethings wrong:

Question: “Why does none of this make any god damn sense?”
Ananas: Sadly a lot of Bones originals end up like this, nothing new here.

Me: This happens when you watch an anime per week and forgot something goddamn important. Also since there is no “real enemy” here and everything is going to pot, the plot is more like “who is the enemy and how do we really solve the problem” plot.

Question: “Why can’t we just have an enemy and root for the heroes to win against it?”
Ananas: I’m rooting for Truth to blow everything up since it sounds visually entertaining.

Me: (LOL) This plot with no real enemy seems like a reflection much of how it would look IRL. Remember the “war in the Middle East?” Everyone was pointing fingers until Bush said he lied.

Who is the enemy. Who is the right and wrong. Who is black and white. Only people who cannot take “gray” will be the ones who start asking these questions.

Except real life nations don’t change allegiances as quickly as they do in Ao. Hell, I still have no idea what Naru is doing. On one hand she seems just fine with killing random people who get in her way, and yet we are supposed to like her? Even Renton and Eureka had serious issues with the fact that they had to kill people to get their way. It was the focus of many episodes.

It all feels like high school drama without the school. Yes, real life can be complicated, but we don’t watch anime because we want to watch a direct mirror of real life. We want a story with a beginning and an end, and two episodes from the end I should know who the hell I’m supposed to be rooting for.

“Why does none of this make any god damn sense?”
Sadly a lot of Bones originals end up like this, nothing new here.

I…have to agree here, unfortunately. Even the original had moments that were just coasting on emotion and not logic. Then there’s Rahxephon, X’amd, Darker Than Black, No 6., Star Driver…so BONES series not making sense is kind of a tradition at this point.

Machinery with a soul/archetype or w/e since it moves on it’s own and basically listens to what he asks it to do. Honestly I don’t think it matters and I don’t think E7 AO ties into the Movie at all, just the original series. IMO, the movie never happened as for as this series is concerned.

It’s just as anticlimactic as Elena’s “resolution”. For weeks it seemed like he had something improtant to say, what’s with Johannson’s story, or how this world is “wrong” or how people don’t see “the truth of the world”, but actually it was all complete bullshit, he’s just a raging lunatic that went wrong. Truly this is the best storytelling ever.

Fleur x AO shippers can forget this pair, from what I saw in this episode. AO blushing to see Naru and asking her if she likes Truth humm… well, even he saying that he sees her as a “older sister” became obvious that actually isn’t so. From what I noticed the talk between Naru and AO, he sees her as a possible candidate for “girlfriend” and not the opposite… unless it happens a twist at the end… of course, is possible.

About the rest, I’ve given up on understanding the plot of Eureka Seven AO

Weren’t Ao and Naru holding hands in the beginning like it’s nothing, but now it’s akward when they do it… I wonder what that means. Maybe it has something to do with them realizing that they’ve changed… or not.

biggest unbelievable twist,Bones decide to expand AO series and switch MC role from AO to Renton
that 1000% will fix this anime
like Goku and Gohan in Majin Buu Saga,we all were thought Gohan as MC in early story but after middle story all roles dramatically changed

You brought DBZ into this argument so you are now automatically wrong.

Also you clearly don’t know the history of Dragon Ball because Akira Toriyama wanted to end the series after the Cell saga but was pushed to continue it to milk the cow more. This is why he had no involvement in GT and why it was such a trainwreck.

Actually, Toriyama did the initial designs for all the characters and items and gave them notes about what to do with the story. He’s also said that he fully approves of the series and a lot of the story.

Who the fuck is Ao’s sister? The fact that Eureka says its a girl way back then was mentioned for a reason, I have a hard time believing they did it just to screw with everyone and Eureka really had a boy.

That’s definitely a fair question, and I agree it wasn’t done strictly as a diversion. I don’t think it’s been conclusively ruled out that Naru could be – it was never my favorite theory, but by process of elimination I think it’s currently inside the realm of possibility.

AH HA! I knew Renton’s voice sounded too familiar. Not sure it really fits his image though, and it seems awkward to have Renton sound exactly the same as his idol.

I think this episode was nice, not solely because of Renton’s awesome entrance (which I was not expecting; thought it would be a little more deus ex machina), but also with the downtime our main characters get. Rather than simply being thrust into tense situations after tense situations, it’s nice to get a little rest as we build the tension again. *This* is what pacing should be like–not that I think the story is good or well developed at any rate.

It’s clear that AO tried to be something of a standalone sequel, but couldn’t succeed entirely at being an entertaining series of its own, nor a satisfying sequel (aside from the cameos and possibly good ending). Bones introduced too many subplots too late, which resulted in a messy string of episodes up until the actual end (~21-24). At least now, AO has piqued my interest.

Seeing Renton made me really excited.I also really like how he looks, even though they couldn’t have picked a more distracting seiyuu.
I’ve actually heard a theory that the world Renton is in isn’t the E7 world. That he’s been world hopping because of the fact that he talks about it “always being the same” and the fact that this world doesn’t have a heart on the moon.

I missed that about the moon, thanks for that! I was focusing on the voice like some of the others…and the light part of his hair being similar in color to Holland’s, major confusion for me in that sequence until i saw his eyes and the conversation with Nirvash.

Even though E7AO should be based on its own merits, i feel as though this major difference between this series and the original series was that of the narration. In the original, it was mostly seen through and heard from Renton’s point-of-view. However, there is no narration to hear of in this series; for the most part. Here is where the deviation stands. The original made a better character development because there were more episodes to spend the time on. However, E7AO does not have that capacity. Yet, both series seems to share the common theme of destruction. However, I still yearn the mono-logs we heard from Renton and how he took the world around him. If somehow this was implemented into E7AO it would have been easier for the audience to grasp the concept and world AO is in; as was Renton’s.

i have been thoroughly enjoying this show. I find that it gives off a more serious and seinen atmosphere than the first series, not to mention the complexity of the situation. It’s interesting where this series seems to be written as more of a environmental-determined sci-fi. it’s a bit sad that theres a gap until the final conclusion GAYYYYYYYYYYY

Is the notion that people might complain about the lack of Renton in E7:AO that strange of them? I mean, its not as if Renton was the main protagonist of the original E7 – he was just a supporting character. Its totally unreasonable for people to expect him to feature prominently in the sequel, and they should be happy he finally got an appearance in ep22. Sarcasm this aint.

Overall, there are a lot of questions left unanswered with only 2 episodes to go. What happened to the original Gekkostate. And where are Link, Maurice and Maeter – Eureka and Renton’s oldest 3 kids? I find it odd there is absolutely no mention of the kids at all throughout AO.

Renton may have been E7′s main character, but to most extents and purposes, his story has already been told. Unlike Eureka, who is the true titular character, Bones didn’t have to be as nice and actually give us Renton at all. We could have been unlucky and gotten a silent cameo (kind of how we waited to see Adroc in the original and he never spoke a word). Just because he’s Ao’s father it doesn’t mean that he’s the focus of the story anymore, and it truly isn’t about him anyway. Eureka is the connecting thread, which is why she got so much more screen time. Ao doesn’t even know his father, so he doesn’t really have any foundation for wanting to see him compared to what he has with his mother. It’s great he showed but it was never a requirement.

Gekkostate disbanded (Go look up “the Day After” on youtube) and by the time Renton is this old (around 30 probably), the kids will have all grown up and probably gone on with their lives. Maurice would be at least 25, Maeter 22-3, and Linck about 19 or 20.

Eureka is the true titular character of the series – I’m sorry, but I cannot agree with that statement. The original E7 was about Renton’s journey to manhood and while Eureka was central to his journey of self-discovery, it was Renton’s story. Eureka was important because she was Renton’s focus for much of the original anime. As for the similarities between Adroc in the original series and Renton here, the two situations cannot be compared. Adroc did not have an entire 52-episode anime dedicated to him, where he was the main protagonist. There was no loyal fanbase expecting a perpetuation of his storyline.

Yes, I know Gekkostate disbanded. It should have been obvious I was referring to what happened to all of the crew. As for the kids, Renton, Eureka and them were a very tight knit family. I simply cannot see them just going on and about with their lives separately, not while Eureka’s dimension hopping and Renton is fighting some kind of war.

They may not be able to world-time travel like Eureka or Renton, so it’s unlikely they’d be of any help. Both Eureka and Renton have special ties to the Scub and to the Nirvash, whereas the kids are just normal humans.

As to the title/main character difference. I also have stated that the title is precisely Eureka Seven because it’s not about Eureka, but about both Renton and Ao’s obsession with her, respectively. Renton’s was a romantic attachment whereas Ao’s is a familiar one. She’s pretty much the plot device around which both boys’ stories are told, hence why she’s more important to AO than Renton is.